The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s students pride themselves on their Big Ten status and the Illini colors that define them. But every year on the Friday before St. Patrick’s Day, campus participants unofficially rid their orange and blue for Celtic green.
“The best way to describe Unofficial is it’s the one time of the year the whole campus is united for a common cause,” said Joey Maiorana, a junior in business. “It’s good because everyone gets to meet everyone’s friends from home, and the stresses from school stop for at least one day.”
Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day is an all day drinking event that serves as a replacement for the actual Irish holiday, which inconveniently lands during the Illinois students’ spring break. This year the event was held on Friday, March 1. Katie Scime, a junior at UIUC, described the celebration as “kind of like a drunken fest.”
“One of the best things about Unofficial is you don’t need a plan. The only thing you need planned is where you are going to start your day, but that’s what make this holiday so great — you just wing it,” Maiorana explained. “It’s nice not to just go to the campus bars. It’s a good change of pace.”
Many students begin celebrating even before sunrise. “I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and started celebrating around 8:00 a.m.,” said Tara McDermott, a sophomore in communications. “My apartment hosted a huge breakfast. My roommates and other people in our building all chipped in on the feast.” A tradition coined “Kegs and Eggs” had integrated itself into the Unofficial festivities. Students prepare themselves for the excessively long day of drinking with a substantial morning meal.
“Instead of going out the night before, we go to County Market and fill our carts with so much food for the next day,” Maiorana said, sharing him and his friends’ tradition. “It’s just a fun thing. We probably spend like $50 each on just like chips.
Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day is not a sactioned event by the University, but many students choose to participate. The Champaign police department voiced that they want to emphasize safety and not the negative consequences of the annual drinking fest.
The News-Gazette reported that Champaign Mayor Don Gerard has put a limit on alcohol sales on campus during Unofficial weekend to prevent alchohol circulation. Campus bars were required to increase entry age to 21 and prohibited from providing happy-hour drink specials. The University enforced a strict no-guest policy in the public resident halls and placed security at major lecture halls and throughout classrooms to checks bags and IDs.
McDermott said, “ I personally just saw a few policemen, but I heard about a lot of people getting tickets this year in comparison to past years.” She added, “I think a part of the reason they were more strict is because it was so icy outside and didn’t want people falling and hurting themselves.”
Maiorana also commented on the weather’s impact on Unofficial this year. “My freshman year — two years ago — was pretty warm and there was just so much more excitement and green everywhere,” he said. “This year was a lot colder out and I really noticed the difference in people participating. It changed a lot of visiting friends’ minds.”
This year, Maiorana and his roommates, Arnold Syphommarath and Chris Butler, decided to design and sell shirts for the Irish inspired holiday. With a collaboration of concepts they came up with over they summer and their own different skill sets, the Casino Brothers Clothing Co. got their kick start with Unofficial. The most popular seller was what Maiorana refered to as the ‘Mean Girl’ shirt. The front of the shirt has the infamous movie quote, “she doesn’t even go here,” and the back says, “you drink glen coco!”
“The reason why it worked out so well was because there is a little bit of tension between everyone visiting for Unofficial and the people who actually go to school here,” explained Mariorana.
Renee Romano, vice chancellor for student affairs at the University, reported in the News-Gazette that over the years, about 60 percent to 65 percent of the people arrested on Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day are not University of Illinois students.
This un-condoned event brings in a huge amount of visitor traffic.
The public officials and University are not the only ones with concern on their mind.
Scime said, “I was going to have guy friends come down for the weekend, but I was really glad I didn’t.” She explained that the frats were strict on guests and she didn’t want to have people at her apartment because of the risks of getting fined and the burden of being liable for others. “With having visitors you have to be responsible for them, and that definitely puts a strain on your own fun.”
“It was different for me this year living outside of a dorm because you obviously have a lot more freedom and it wasn’t so strict about who could stay with you or not,” McDermott explained. In dorms specifically though, she said, the policies kind of hold their purpose. “The dorms are mostly freshman and often the freshman really don’t know what to expect from the day. They may be the ones who get the most out of control.”
“The last two years I had a lot of friends visiting for the event, and it can be kind of stressful because you want to make sure they have the best Unofficial ever. It’s a lot of pressure, but I’m totally okay with people coming to visit, said Maiorana. “Everyone’s friends come from home and you finally get to put face to the stories that you’ve heard.”